Fast Facts: The Gender Pay Gap

The pay gap tends to be larger for women of color and in some cases the gap appears to be widening. Compared to white, non-Hispanic men: 

•  Latinas make 57 cents on the dollar.
•  Native women make 59 cents on the dollar. 
•  Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) women make 65 cents on the dollar.* 
•  Black women make 69 cents on the dollar. 
•  Asian women make 99 cents on the dollar.

For women working full-time, year-round. Data from 2022 Current Population Survey (CPS) Annual Social and Economic (ASEC) Supplement and 2022 American Community Survey (ACS), released September 2023. 

*Note: Data from 2021. Pay gap for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) women will be updated with data set to be released in November 2023.  

The pay gap exists in nearly every profession.

Fields with the smallest pay gaps are food workers, writers, counselors, pharmacists and social workers, where women earn within 97–99% of what their male colleagues do. The largest gaps occur among financial services sales agents, financial managers and financial advisers. In those fields, the pay ratio between women and men is between 61–66%.

Mothers face an even wider pay gap than women without kids.
Moms working full-time, year-round earn only 74 cents for every dollar paid to fathers, which translates to a loss of [$] annually.

Women with bachelor’s degrees working full time are paid 26% less than their male counterparts.
Though women in the U.S. now earn more college and postgraduate degrees than men, they also hold nearly two-thirds of the nation’s outstanding student debt — $929 billion.

Women face an income gap in retirement.
Because they have earned less and therefore paid less in the Social Security system, they receive less in Social Security benefits. They also lag behind men in pension benefits, as well as retirement savings.